In a quiet evening
by Floranna
Summary: Quiet evening together. My Yuletide 2015 story.


Captain Amelia Amelia stood over the crib holding two of her daughters and gave them both a light kiss on the forehead. Then she continued to the cradle where her son and youngest daughter slept gave them the same. All of them were sleeping peacefully after an arduous day.

She slide silently to the door and slipped out using all of her hard-won skills of sneaking. Some people would laugh at her for needing to use her skill sets around bunch of barely-toddlers, but all of the aforementioned toddlers seemed to have inherited her sharp ears and not their fathers 'would miss a bomb if I was a sleep' head floppers. Amelia and Delbert had mourned over this for many nights when even a small creak seemed to make them wake up and immediately cacophonous.

Amelia was still sneaking when she reached the living room where Delbert was reading. Filled with a desire of doing a bit of mischief, she snuck behind him and laid her hands on his shoulders. The suddenness of this made him jump out of his chair - but he didn't let out a sound, kids had him well trained - and turn around glaring at her. Amelia was giving him an amused smile, which in the end caused Delbert to give a small huff of a laugh.

Amelia sat on the back of the couch while Delbert set his head on her thigh and relaxed a bit. Delbert lazily flipped the pages of the book he was reading, both enjoying the rare silence.

After some time he raised his head to look her in the eyes and asked: "How is the crew gathering going?"

Amelia sighed. "Could be better. The biggest problem is to find a good and reliable enough of a first mate as Mr Arrow's successor. There are couple of candidates that both of us had worked with before, but..."

"But he is a difficult man to replace."

At this Amelia felt the flash of old but still strong hurt. "I am NOT replacing him!"

Delbert flinched a bit at her outburst which made Amelia feel like a shit. She sighed again and fully settled down at the couch's back. "I should have thought that the pain would've passed already, even after..."

Delbert had risen from the couch and walked next to her. "You would think so, would you? Yet even now when I look at Pippen, I am reminded of my fathers and the pain gets in. They always said that I wouldn't get to have a family as long as I spent my whole life buried in books." He let put a small sound of amusement and continued: "Guess they were right in the end."

Amelia nodded. "I still wonder what my parents would think of me now. We haven't spoken for years, not since I ran off to join the Military Academy."

"They would be fools to not be proud of you. In fact, even now after all that has happened, whenever I look at you, I still wonder what do you see in a boring scholar like me."

She dropped gracefully from the couch to her feet and kissed him on the nose. "I see kindness, bravery and you make me smile. I could continue for whole night, but I still wouldn't be able to list them all."

Delbert gave a small laugh, blushing. She laughed too but kindly and kissed his blushed cheeks twice and put her forehead against his.

They stood there for awhile until Delbert opened his mouth: "You do know that I don't want you to stay landlocked because of any guilt?"

Amelia sighed. "I know, and I am glad for it. I do not believe I could stay on the ground for long, no matter how many wonderful things I would have here."

Delbert smiled softly. "And I don't think we would like you that much if you stayed", but softened his remark with a wink. Amelia let out a loud bark of a laughter which made both of them freeze, and turn towards the nursery. There was no sound, and after few seconds both of them relaxed.

Amelia laid her hands on Delbert's stomach and said: "We have wonderful children and I love you very much, but..."

"But space calls you. I understand. If someone tried to keep me away from my books there would be carnage!"

Amelia snorted at this but Delbert continued: "And I would never keep you away from something you love. And I will always trust you to come back."

Amelia smiled bitterly. "Sometimes I feel selfish in my desires, when I still want to be part of our children's lives and not to miss anything."

"I am sorry dear, but you will most definitely miss something, and it's okay. But you did say of making only shorter, less dangerous trips?"

"Yes that's the plan."

They stood there, basking on the heat of the each other's bodies but unwilling and too tired to go any further right now.

"Is there something else bothering you?"

Amelia let out a frustrated sound. "Nothing I can put words into, no."

"Space?"

She shook her head, and watched Delbert's gaze go inward, contemplating and again let a soft smile of fondness on her face. She would miss this whenever she went back to the ship.

"The alarming rise of the mentality of disrespecting history among youths' and adults on this day?"

Now she snorted again but shook her head. "Just a feeling of... dread that I have."

"Of what?", exclaimed Delbert "Jim is in the Military Academy, he can't be in the middle of any trouble!"

Amelia smirked. "Oh, you wouldn't even begin to guess at what kind of trouble we got in there as students..."

Delbert let out a distressed noise. "Maybe I should invest in a bunker..."

He managed to keep the worried look on his face for a few seconds, until he finally broke down and started to guffaw, Amelia joining him. They were joined by the sound of baby crying, which made them stop immediately and it was quickly joined by three others. They gave each other tired looks and started to walk towards the nursery, commiserating over the loss of a quiet evening together.


End file.
